News Headlines

UK Watchdog slammed on delay

By Dan Roberts and Rosemary Bennett in London
Financial Times: September 21 2000 20:41GMT

Britain's independent telecommunications watchdog has lost the confidence of senior officials within the UK government and European Commission who believe it has allowed British Telecommunications to stifle internet growth. David Edmonds, director-general of Oftel, the regulating body, has already admitted he should have acted "tougher and sooner" against BT and is thought to be under increasing pressure to stand down as competitors this week dropped plans to introduce high-speed internet access.

On Thursday, a top adviser to Europe's e-commerce commissioner warned that Britain was falling behind even countries such as France, which have traditionally been far slower to introduce competition. "The UK has relegated itself from the premier league [of Europen telecoms regulation] to the relegation zone of the second division," said Olli Rehn, head of cabinet for Erkki Liikanen, European information commissioner.

More from the FT:    FT.com's telecoms page

Doubts cast over PLT benefits

By Matthew Jones in London
Financial Times: September 5 2000 18:14GMT

UBS Warburg, the Swiss-owned investment bank, on Tuesday dismissed plans by European utilities to transmit data through power lines as "unrealistic hype".

Powerline transmission, the use of power lines to transmit high quality data, has been sold to the market as a way of unlocking hidden value in poor performing power utility stocks. In the last year the share prices of German power utilities have jumped by as much as 20 per cent in one day on speculation about the value of PLT. About a dozen companies, including Scottish Power, Electricidade de Portugal, Endesa, Vattenfall, RWE and Eon, have said they are considering using the technology as a way of offsetting falling electricity prices.

However, research carried out by The Smith Group, a specialist telecommunications company, for UBS Warburg has concluded that the impact of PLT has been exaggerated. Nick Pink, head of European utilities at the bank, warned investors not to attribute any value to PLT in their assessments of utility companies. "Our view is that it would be imprudent to change price targets on the strength of this technology alone."

More from the FT:    FT.com's telecoms page

Get online on your powerline

By Bob Levine, TelekomNet, Aug. 25

The available - or nearly available - choices for Internet access are growing. Now you can add to that list powerline telecommunications (PLT), a new technology that could allow Internet access through your ubiquitous electrical socket.

PowerNet Communications TEGA, Inc. is deploying PLT in Sweden in collaboration with Birka Energi of Stockholm. This is billed as the first commercial deployment of PLT in the world. Although PowerNet has its own ISP division, the company notes that the goal of PLT would ultimately be to make power companies become ISPs just as cable companies have recently been doing.

Bohbot says PowerNet can currently generate a 1Mbps symmetrical offering. The company found that "20 [simultaneous] users were averaging in excess of 350 kbps during beta trials due to a highly efficient protocol." Although these numbers were achieved under ideal conditions, Bohbot points out that 5Mpbs offerings will be available in the next generation of technology. This would allow the individual user download speeds to top 1Mpbs.

PowerNet plans on entering the North American market in mid-2001 with volume rollout at the end of next year. While the company will be targeting homes and offices, its focus will be on schools, which Bohbot sees as "an attractive entry into the communities that we intend to serve."

More from TelekomNet:    www.TelekomNet.com

Powerline Communications World Congress Announced

The date and venue for the IIR's Third Annual Power Line Communications World Congress has now been announced. The three day conference will take place on the Wednesday 4th - Friday 6th October 2000, at The Forum Park Hotel, Geneva.

IIR's Third Power Line Communications World Congress will include presentations from leading utilities as well as telecoms operators and the business case for providing power line services to customers will be covered extensively. You will also be updated on the status of standardisation of broadband power line from CENELEC and ETSI and the technical challenges that have been faced by the industry will be identified and examined.

Click Here for the full story.

HomePlug Select Intellon's PowerPacket™ Technology

OCALA, FL - June 5, 2000 - Intellon announced today that its breakthrough PowerPacket™ technology has been selected by the HomePlug Powerline Alliance as the basis for its industry specification for powerline home networking. The HomePlug Powerline Alliance is a not-for-profit corporation founded by 13 leading companies in the home networking market to provide a forum for the creation of open specifications for high speed home powerline networking products and services.

Click Here for the full story.

PLC Forum launched in Switzerland

The long awaited merger of the German based PTF and the International Forum IPCF was finally accomplished in Switzerland in March this year. The new organisation formed to consolidate the Working Groups of the two competing entities has been dubbed PLC Forum, an organisation that embodies much of the structure and objectives of the two former organisations. Membership of the PLC Forum offers an opportunity to meet with other participants in the Powerline Communications industry in a process of working towards the establishment of technical standards and a realistic regulatory environment. The transitional process will inevitably bring some short term slowdown in the visibility a of a cohesive force in the industry, adding somewhat to the time already lost in the protracted merger process last year. Long-term however this step can only be good for the industry.

HomePlug alliance formed in USA.

The good business case for the rapid deployment of Powerline communications systems within the home and small office environment particularly in the USA has stimulated the creation of the Home-Plug alliance in the USA. A number of significant players formed a special interest group earlier this year with the objective of creating an In-Home a standard within six months.

Supported by organisations such as Cisco, Intel, 3Com, Motorola, AMD, the Home-Plug Alliance promises to bring a very high profile to the industry.

This move is likely to be because most of the In-Home people were probably disillusioned by the slow progress of the development of In-Home standards, as a result of the IPF and PTF becoming it bogged down in merger negotiations throughout last year. While this development appears to fragment the industry, the outcome can only be good in the long term, as the acceptance of Powerline Communications as a viable means of connectivity will drive power utilities toward the realisation of new business opportunities in the access market.

BT launch ADSL in the UK

BTopenworld - the telco's newly created Internet division - finally unveiled the pricing and availability of its broadband Net services.

Consumers will be charged £39.99 a month (inc. VAT), plus a one-off installation fee of £150 - although if you get your order in before June 30, BT will generously waive that fee.

Multiple business users will be charged £99.99 per month with a £260 installation fee.

Maximum download speeds for both consumers and businesses will be 512Kbps, increasing to 2Mbps by December.

This move by BT now sets the pricing basis for alternative Powerline access systems and since the availability of this service will it be a less than a 50 per cent of households, it may be time for power utilities to revisit their PLT business plans. There appears to be no shortage of takers, within that the first three days of announcing the service, BT claims that more than 35,000 people have already registered an interest. - www.btopenworld.com

TELCOS TOLD TO UNBUNDLE LOCAL LOOP BY END OF 2000

The European Commission (EC) has given European telcos until 31 December to take steps to unbundle the local loop, opening up the last mile of telephone networks that connect exchanges to homes and businesses...

Fourteen companies get access to BT's local loop

The UK's first unbundled local loop will go on trial early next year in Belfast, Edinburgh, Leeds and London.

Fourteen cable operators - rivals to BT - were yesterday given the green light by Oftel to install their DSL equipment in BT's exchanges. The first services are due to be offered to consumers by July 2001 at the latest.

Initially, it will be up to BT to manage its rivals' equipment, in accordance with government commitments to introduce competition in local telecommunication services. But from September this year, BT will be allowed to start hiring-out space to rival DSL services.

The fourteen cable companies are: Colt, CWC, Easynet, Eircom, Energis, Fibernet, First Telecom, Global Crossing, Kingston Communication, MCI Worldcom, NTL, Telewest, Telinco and Thus.

Oftel is due to release details of licensing conditions in June, following consultation with industry.